Now and Here
by AlyssaLucyAnne
Summary: A future fic. Castle, Beckett and Laser Tag.


**Now and Here**

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_2 little whos_

_(he and she)_

_Under are this_

_Wonderful tree_

_Smiling stand_

_(all realms of where_

_And when beyond)_

_Now and here_

_-_ **E.E. Cummings**

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Their living room is bathed in almost complete darkness, the blinds shut and the lights out, only sparsely illuminated by singular sun rays seeping through the thick curtains, spreading just enough light to manifest the contours of the furniture into solid schemes and suggest the notion of a sunny and warm summer day.

Detective Kate Beckett is cowering behind her couch, hiding in the shadows of her home, her ears set on the sounds around her; The heavy sounds of traffic coming from the outside, the soft breathing right next to her and the shuffling of silent feet, desperately trying to keep quiet coming from the kitchen counter.

She looks down to the tiny frame of her daughter sitting next to her with her legs drawn up to her chest, her untamed curls tumbling down to both of her sides, spilling over the dark blue vest she is wearing and ending only close to her belly button. She looks up at her, blue eyes meeting her green ones in the stillness of the shadows. The usually cerulean blue of her daughter's eyes is darker in the semi darkness of the room, deeper somehow, sprinkles of cobalt sparkling in them when scattered echoes of light are reflected in them.

Her daughter smirks up at her slightly, her tiny lips curling upwards, finally relenting to the treacherous tugging in the corners of her mouth, relinquishing the illusion that this is actual serious business instead of one of her favorite things to do and truly smiles at her mother, a conspiratorial smile, eyes set on her intently, waiting for any sign to attack, to leave their hiding spot and fight their opponent.

Beckett holds up her index finger, signalizing her daughter to stay put, to not move and not make any sound that could indicate where they are, before she drops down on the floor, the huge black laser gun held in front of her, pointed to the kitchen counter.

She sees him moving next to it almost immediately. He's also sitting on the floor, trying to make out their position, and she slowly retreats to her sitting position next to her daughter and points in his general direction to show her where she will have to aim her gun.

The six year old nods, her eyes wide and serious, her teeth cutting into her lower lip, completely focused and concentrated on the task in front of her. She nods one more time before she raises the gun up to her chest, ready to aim and attack. The weapon is so huge, almost as long as her arm but they weren't able to find a smaller one than this one and Grace had been more than eager to learn how to play with this one, unwilling to wait any longer to finally be able to play this game with her family, and so they had decided that somehow she would manage to handle it if she really wanted to and had eventually gotten it for her sixth birthday.

Beckett starts counting with her fingers, holds them so that Grace is able to see the silent signal, the quiet understanding between a mother and her daughter, showing her when they are going to start shooting.

One

Two

Three

And they both shoot up from their position behind the couch, spin around to where he is kneeling on the floor and start shooting.

He jumps up at that too, tries to raise and aim his weapon at them in order to defend himself, but before he can even get a proper sight of what is happening the red and blue lights on his vest are already lighting up, blinking and flashing, announcing that the player has been positively knocked out.

She sees him dropping his arms then, sees him looking over at them kind of stunned and hears the cadence of her daughter's giggles next to her.

"We won, mommy" she laughs at that too and reaches out her hand to tousle her daughter's hair.

"We most certainly did" Castle is hitting a light switch somewhere so that their living room is instantly lit in bright, fluorescent lights coming from the ceiling before he looks over to his two girls standing next to the couch, high fiving and congratulating each other to their victory.

"That's not fair, you were two against one" Beckett just laughs at that, this carefree laugh that comes to her so naturally now.

"Well you should have expected that the Castle women would team up against you one day"

He looks at her with a feigned hurt expression, eyes wide, hand moving up to his chest, grasping at the fabric of his shirt as if her words had wounded him deeply.

"So you don't love me anymore?" he sighs dramatically, shakes his head ever so slightly and pretends to hold back tears.

Kate notices that her daughter is standing still now, has stopped the giddy bouncing and looks down to find her staring at her father with wide eyes, honest worry and consternation shining in the bright blue and notices that her small lips have started to tremble a little.

But before she can reach down to her, she is already shuffling through the living room, dropping her gun onto the floor as she runs towards her father and hurdles into his arms. He seems kind of taken aback but catches her anyways, swings her in a small circle before he scoops her up into his arms so that she is sitting on his hip, where she throws both of her arms around his neck to keep herself close to him.

"I love you Daddy, I'm sorry" her voice quivers slightly, and he notices the small tears prickling in her wide eyes, threatening to spill free.

"Gracie I know, I know" he holds the hand around his daughter's waist in place, keeping her tucked against him securely but lets his other one travel up her back to stroke her curls, up and down, in gentle and soothing moves until he feels her relaxing a little bit. God he is such an idiot.

"I was just fooling around, I'm sorry" he leans down to press a kiss to the tip of his daughter's nose, smiling at the way she scrunches it up a little and leans down to pepper small kisses all over her face.

"I was just joking" he feels his daughter calming down now, the tension finally leaving her tiny body again. "I love you too baby and you and mommy can team up any time you want" his daughter looks up at him then, twists her mouth a little and narrows her eyes at him.

"You sure you can handle it?" he hears Beckett's restrained laughter at that, the way she is trying so hard to keep the small giggles from bursting free and looks over at his wife, who immediately regains her composure to look at him with a straight face as she starts speaking.

"Yeah Castle, we won this match in like 10 minutes, you sure you can handle the power of the Castle women"

"Well I was just unprepared" he answers "Next round I am going to crush you"

Grace evolves into a small fit of giggles at that and squirms to free herself from her father's embrace once again.

"I don't think so" she says as he sets her down on the floor, where she bends down to pick up her gun again "Mommy is very good"

He laughs at his daughter's fierce belief in her mother's abilities, because who is he kidding, of course his daughter is right. "That she is, Gracie. That she is"

And with that he switches off the lights in the living room, leaving the room in darkness once again.

Round 2. Here we come.

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**AN: This is very short but I hope you like it. I would love to hear your thoughts and hope you all enjoy the episode later!**


End file.
